"Despite their fiendish exteriors, tiefling are scarred on the inside, discarded and disposable pawns of an eternal extraplanar war. If you see one, give them a hug. They need it more than you know."
Excerpt from The Complete Anthropology of Terrania
The tiefling are a nomadic people descended from an ancient society who performed dark rituals to make pacts with fiendish patrons. They gained fiendish powers, but also were morphed to look like their patrons. These pacts kicked off the Age of Darkness.
Several millennia later, the tiefling rejected the Evil of their ancestors, after having been pitted against each other as pawns of the Blood War; those of demonic ancestry fighting those of devilish ancestry. Seeking an end, they joined to become a single people and worked with the other races to end the reign of evil, ushering in the Age of Light.
Modern tiefling live in large roving clans, transporting their camps using fiend-touched bulls and mammoths as beasts of burden. They roam BaelVarnath from north to south, allowing the mammoths to grow their wool in preparation for the trek north and shearing their wool for the trek south. When they settle in a location, they set up sprawling avenues of tents as a huge open-air market. The use of magic is prevalent, and it is not uncommon to see sorcerers manipulating the ground itself to create earthen paths and roads.
Tiefling are generally very wealthy, as their traveling and trading has secured them many valuable (and sometimes illegal) resources and products. They are also known to accept jobs as couriers, carrying packages with them in their travels.
As one might expect, tiefling are sometimes feared by the shorter-lived races. Their fiend-like appearance can be mistaken for the fiend itself by uneducated commoners, and there is a common misconception that tiefling signify the Coming of the Abyss.
Tiefling may present some physical features associated with their fiendish ancestry. These are generally, but not necessarily, horns, and tails, and maybe one or two other features.
- Demonic ancestry results in wild horns, heavy tails, leathery skin, goat-like legs or hooves, or skin that is unnaturally warm to the touch
- Diabolical (devilish) ancestry results in tamer or subtler horns, thin forked tails, scaly skin, a forked tongue, slitted eyes, claws, lizard-like legs, or skin that is cool to the touch
- Rakshasa ancestry results in sharp fangs, sensitive whiskers, furred skin, feline eyes, or backwards hands (facing outwards instead of inwards)
- Yugoloth ancestry (rare) results in chitinous skin (exoskeleton), antennae, spines along their limbs, and arthropod legs